The Hindu : HC orders eviction of Slaterpuram huts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

HC orders eviction of Slaterpuram huts

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JUNE 22. A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered the eviction of huts illegally occupying the eastern bank of Buckingham canal at Slaterpuram. (The place has been earmarked for an MRTS station and the eviction proceedings against the 122 huts had just begun when the occupants moved the court).

Justice S. Jagadeesan and Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam, in their order on Wednesday, upheld a single judge order directing eviction, and said: ``There is no dispute over the fact that they are encroachers...the identity of the land as belonging to the Government is not in dispute''.

Rejecting the argument of the petitioner-association, Bharath Rathna Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Educational Trust, that the statutory requirement of issuing showcause notices to occupants had not been followed, the Bench said: ``The process is not to be applied blindly or reduced to a mere fulfilment of the requirement technically on paper."

``It has been clearly stated that the occupants were duly informed through loudspeaker system. It is also admitted that a notice board was also put up by the officials expressing their intention to evict unauthorised occupation. Therefore, even if the encroachment has been there for a long time a reasonable notice, by fixing a notice on the property by giving a time limit of two weeks or 10 days, would be sufficient."

``The tall claim of the appellants as having been in occupation for more than 100 years has not at all been substantiated,'' the Bench observed.

On the living conditions at the Slaterpuram slum, which is to be cleared for an MRTS station coming up between the Light House and Tirumayilai stations, the Bench said: ``The entire area is nothing more than a gutter and drainage canal with dark, thick and blackened water stagnating around. Some of the huts are just one or two feet away from the stagnation. The entire area is a dismal breeding place for all diseases and infections. The occupants should be evicted at least on the grounds of serious health hazards even without the need for MRTS."

``We are really shocked that someone could insist that the people in the area be allowed to continue to live in such inhuman and unhealthy conditions. We would like to say nothing more on the unpleasant state of affairs''.

Finding the alternative site at Okkiyam Thuraipakkam acceptable, the Bench said ``the site put up by the Slum Clearance Board (SCB) is what one could wish for at the most, in the present circumstances. Pucca constructions have been put up with broad roads, an avenue of trees and women's cooperative stores.''

``The criticism that it is far away from the existing place is not acceptable.

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HC orders eviction of Slaterpuram huts